Field and Service Robotics: Results of the 7th International Conference

Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into human en- ronments and vigorously engaged in its new challenges. Interacting with, assi- ing, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has p- duced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuros- ences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the int- section of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is devoted to bringing to the research community the latest advances in the robotics field on the basis of their significance and quality. Through a wide and timely dissemination of critical - search developments in robotics, our objective with this series is to promote more exchanges and collaborations among the researchers in the community and c- tribute to further advancements in this rapidly growing field.

The seventh edition of Field and Service Robotics, edited by Andrew Howard, Karl Iagnemma and Alonzo Kelly, offers an eleven chapter collection of a broad range of topics spanning: design, perception and control; tracking and sensing; localization and mapping; multi-robot cooperation and human-robot interaction; mining, maritime and planetary robotics. The volume's forty-five contributions represent a cross-section of the current state of robotics research from one particular aspect: field and service applications. Pursuing technologies aimed at realizing robots operating in complex and dynamic environments, as well as robots working closely with humans, is the overarching theme running throughout this collection.